[Marcella]

Check out the yahoo group for the towpath:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coTowpath/

Lots and lots of information there. Also the Bike Washington site:

http://www.bikewashington.org/canal/index.php

[Marcella]

@sjclaeys 13293 wrote:

I am at a loss on what to do about this situation. My emails to Arlington County have gone unanswered and Bike Arlington does not seem to care. How do we get across the message that supporting cycling is more than painting sharrows, having nice websites and handing out knickknacks at Bike to Work Day? It means having every County office and department recognize the needs of cyclists and the impact of the County’s activities on cyclists.

Really, I don’t think this is about supporting cycling or not supporting cycling. They do the same thing with any kind of work that requires them to block a road — random closures with no signage to warn you until you’re on top of it and have to make a u-turn and then get lost in a neighborhood with more dead-ends than through streets until you finally find your way around it and back to your original route. If you ask the workers a question, like how many days will the road be closed before they’re finished, they have no idea what the answer is. And don’t get me started on construction workers who see nothing wrong with closing a sidewalk mid-block by spray painting “SIDEWALK CLOSED – CROSS HERE” on a piece of plywood, when “here” refers to a 6-lane road.

[Marcella]

“Having cycled many times on roads, including in NY City in the rain for the Triboro ride in 2009, I am acutely aware of how much better it is to cycle on a path committed to cycling and walking rather than on the street with cars.”

This tells me Garvey thinks I should stick to bike paths.

Klingler cycles and used to commute by bike, and has also been involved with Phoenix Bikes.

[Marcella]

So Garvey thinks we should stay on paths and Sims thinks we should stay in bike lanes.

[Marcella]

@baiskeli 13220 wrote:

I did it a while back – before 9/11 is all I remember, since we stayed in the Marriott that was destroyed that day. It was a parking lot at the start, for many blocks, but then it thins out and it’s fine.

Hmm. I could swear I stayed at the Marriott in 2003. My room overlooked the huge pit.

[Marcella]

@Tim Kelley 12995 wrote:

I have a Trek Madone 4.7 with around 8,000 miles on it. At one point or another, I’ve managed to destroy the cranks, derailleurs and multiple freehub bodies, but so far the frame has held up well to the abuse my Clydesdale weight has put on it!

How bad was the crack? Got any pictures to share?

I took some photos before they sent the frame to Calfee, but I haven’t uploaded them from my camera yet. I’m waiting to get the bike back so I can do the “after” pics at the same time.

The crack was a couple of inches long, I think. It ran lengthwise on the top tube.

[Marcella]

I did it once, back in 2003. It was crowded, and in some spots where the route narrowed quite a bit we had to stop and wait while everyone funneled through. But most of the time we moved at a good pace.

Another organized ride through the city is the NYC Century, which happens in early September. Again, I haven’t ridden it since 2003, but I liked it a lot. The only real problem I recall is that it took me so long to finish it that there was a fair amount of afternoon traffic to deal with in upper Manhattan towards the end of the ride. But that was partly my fault, since I spent too much time at the rest stops.

The route choices for the NYC Century are 15, 35, 55, 75 and 100 miles.

http://nyccentury.org/register

I would do the NYC Century again before I did the 5 Boro tour.

[Marcella]

Calfee appears to have a backlog of work right now. My bike was sent to them in mid-November for a frame repair, and I still don’t have it back yet. (Their website says turnaround time is usually about 3 weeks.)

[Marcella]

@jabberwocky 12792 wrote:

Yeah, I’ve tried doing some group road rides several times over the years and have never really enjoyed them. My first attempts with Potomac Pedalers went pretty much like that (and went waaaaaay over their advertised pace). I tried a Reston Bike Club ride this past autumn and kept up ok, but the group just wasn’t much fun (culminated with some old roadie taking issue with something I did and trying to steer me into a bridge on the W&OD, after which I told him if he tried that again I was gonna cheerfully put his decrepit old butt into the pavement :rolleyes: ).

My experiences are that the MTB world is much nicer for new riders. I do plenty of road riding these days, but almost all my riding partners are people I met through MTBing. Go figure.

My experience with PPTC (CC level) rides has varied — some have been good and others have been the type where I was dropped immediately and on my own for the entire ride. I think it has been better in the past year or two.

I looked into the Reston club but it does not offer rides at my level on weekends.

I like the folks at the Oxon Hill club a lot. Many of their ride starts are actually not that far from home for me (in Arlington).

[Marcella]

@dasgeh 12781 wrote:

A lot of the recent posts on this thread seem to me to be more about the divide between what I’ll call “transportational cyclists” (people using bikes to commute, run errands, go out, etc) and bike racers.

There is another category, recreational cyclists who ride for fun and exercise. Within that group is a broad range of riders, including long-distance riders (for fun and fundraising), tourers, club riders and others looking for a bit of socializing on the ride, people who cruise around the neighborhood for 1/2 hour for exercise, and people who enjoy riding with their kids.

I had the impression that the forum was most interested in the gender gap in transportational cyclists. But that might be because of something I read about it, I think it was an article on TBDonfoot. At any rate, I think there are different issues to address to encourage more women to ride bikes for transportation vs recreation vs racing. For example, for transportation there are issues like riding in traffic, your appearance once you reach your destination, and carrying objects which might be bulky or heavy. For recreation, there are a fair number of women who are reluctant to ride by themselves due to concerns about safety or simply due to a desire for a social element to the ride.

One issue that cuts across all categories is the question of what kind of bike to get. Along with this comes questions about proper fit and what other equipment is necessary or useful to have. The options can be quite bewildering.

[Marcella]

@americancyclo 12741 wrote:

I just heard about the Specialized/LuluLemon team. Do any of the female cyclists pay attention to women’s professional cycling? I know a few of the men’s big names in competitive cycling from casually following the TdF, but the only female cyclist that I can name immediately is Liz Hatch, mostly because of her association with action wipes and BikeSnobNYC. Just wondering if the professional world of cycling has any influence on the rest of the female cycling world.

It seems to me that women are really only presented with two options.
1) Beautiful Godzilla
2) Uber fit Racer

It’s my impression that it is more acceptable for me to be an average cyclist on an overpriced bike and ‘that guy that bikes to work all the time’ just because I’m a guy. I’d like to be wrong.

I would follow women’s pro cycling if it was easier to do so. They get very little media coverage in the US, and pretty much no TV time. I follow men’s road cycling pretty closely, though I paid no attention to it before I started cycling as an adult.

There are plenty of female cyclists who are just ordinary people riding bikes. Their fitness levels, skill levels and reasons for riding vary. You see them on the trails and at club rides all the time.

I started cycling as an adult because the woman who used to cut my hair told me there were great trails in the DC area, and I thought it would be a good way to get some exercise. A few guys I knew then encouraged me and gave me some advice on buying a bike.

BTW my hairstylist was not uber fit or into racing. She was just an ordinary person, albeit with a great hair style.

And I have never seen a “Beautiful Godzilla,” except in photos.

Why is it more acceptable for you to be an average cyclist on an overpriced bike and ‘that guy that bikes to work all the time’ just because you’re a guy? How is ordinary person on a bike an option for men but not for women?

[Author]

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